Privacy Policy & Terms of Use

updated 05-03-12

These terms apply to pioneergroup.com and all other websites owned and operated by The Pioneer Group. These websites provide members and other visitors public posting areas for sharing comments, photos, event listings and other content. Please read the rules contained in this agreement. Your use of and/or registration on any aspect of the website constitutes your agreement to comply with these rules. We may need to changes these Terms of Use from time to time. Changes will be posted to this page and the effective date of the terms will reflect the date of the changes. You will be notified of any significant changes made to these Terms of Use.

Disclaimer and Visitor’s Agreement

Materials that are submitted are not endorsed by The Pioneer Group. The Pioneer Group does not guarantee the accuracy of information posted in our public posting areas, whether that information comes from a user, local official, celebrity, “expert,” or a member of our own staff.

Limitations on our liability

Under no circumstances shall The Pioneer Group be held liable for damages arising from this website stemming from publicly posted content.

Registration

Visitors 13 years of age or older who agree to the Terms of Service may register and post content to the site. To register you will be asked to choose a username and provide a valid email address. You agree that the information you supply will be accurate and that you will not supply the email address of, or register under the name of, another person. We reserve the right to reject any username we deem offensive or inappropriate.

Use of Communication Services

We provide various areas on our websites that allow our users to interact with others — such as comment areas, a user submitted photo gallery, classified advertisements, etc. As a community oriented newspaper company we believe in the promotion of free speech and the open exchange of information and ideas through the medium of the Internet and through other channels. We want all of our readers to be able to enjoy our communications services available at all websites affiliated with The Pioneer Group.

We reserve the right to deny access to our communications services to any visitor who violates the “Terms of Use” or who we believe to be interfering with the operation of these sites.

We also reserve the right to delete, move, edit and filter any posts to our public posting areas that come to our attention and that we find unacceptable or inappropriate, whether for legal or other reasons. We will comply with the requirement of the law concerning the disclosure of content posted by our users, including law enforcement agencies.

Sharing Policy

The material on this website, and all others owned/operated by the Pioneer Group, may not be broadcast, published, rewritten or redistributed without written permission.

You are not permitted to use anyone else’s username and password to log in or otherwise access the content on the website, and you are not permitted to share your username and password to allow others to log in or otherwise access content on the website. A membership is meant to be for an individual’s use only, including their immediate family/same household. Violators will be subject to limited access.

Business Bundles: Some customers may prefer to purchase bundles of memberships for their businesses. Business bundle memberships are sold in sets of 10 and are intended for use by 10 individuals designated by the organization, with no more than 10 individuals having access to the account.

Guidelines for Posting Content

We have a few simple guidelines for posting content. We reserve the right to delete any content that doesn’t follow these guidelines and to terminate the accounts of anyone who repeatedly violates them.

Please be responsible. Self-moderate, remembering that this is a family-friendly website. Don’t post content you wouldn’t want your 13-year-old child or your mother to view. That includes profanity, nudity and lewdness.

Any content you post anywhere on a website owned/operated by The Pioneer Group must be your original work, or you must have authorization from the copyright owner. Do not attempt to impersonate another individual.

Do not post content that defames or invades the privacy of an individual. Keep your disagreements civil. No harassing or intimidating others. Disagree with another person’s views — don’t attack the person.

Keep your ranting to a minimum. Take a deep breath, count to 10.

Try to keep your posts on topic as much as possible.

Content that promotes racism, bigotry, homophobia, hatred or physical harm to any group or individual will not be tolerated.

Content posted to any websites owned by the Pioneer Group is not pre-screened or edited by our staff. We therefore make no claims as to the validity or accuracy of content posted. Under no circumstances is The Pioneer Group liable in any way for the content that is posted by users.

These websites are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under the copyright laws of the United States and other countries. All individual articles, content, and other elements comprising these websites are also copyrighted works.

By posting content to any of these websites, you automatically grant the right to The Pioneer Group to use, copy, modify, adapt or publish the content that you post, including for purposes of advertising and publicity on the website and elsewhere. The Pioneer Group is under no obligation to pay you for your posting.

Examples of Prohibited Uses

The following, may constitute the deleting of a post or the removal of a user.

Uploading, posting, emailing, transmitting or otherwise making available any content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, libelous, or obscene;

Impersonating any person or entity, or falsely stating or otherwise misrepresenting your affiliation with a person or entity;

Forging headers or otherwise manipulating identifiers in a manner that disguises the origin of any content you contribute;

Uploading, posting, emailing, transmitting or otherwise making available any content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary right of any party;

Uploading, posting, emailing, transmitting or otherwise making available any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, or any other form of solicitation, without our expressed written consent;

Gathering for the purpose of “spamming” any email addresses that users post in our public posting areas;

Uploading, posting, emailing, transmitting or otherwise making available any content or material that contains software viruses, worms or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications or other equipment, or to cause a security breach of such software, hardware or telecommunications or other equipment;

Uploading or posting any off-topic or irrelevant material to any public posting area;

Interfering with or disrupting any servers or networks used to provide these communications services, or disobeying any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of the networks we use to provide these communications services;

“Stalking” or otherwise harassing another user;

Instigating or encouraging others to commit illegal activities or cause injury or property damage to any person;

Gaining unauthorized access to our website, or any account, computer system, or network connected to this website, by means such as hacking, password mining or other illicit means; or

Obtaining or attempting to obtain any materials or information through any means not intentionally made available through this website.

Privacy Policy

Use of Personal Information

We respect your privacy and will never sell, rent, trade, or otherwise share your personal information with anyone without your consent. This information will never be used to send spam.

The Pioneer Group collects user-submitted information such as email addresses to authenticate users. The Pioneer Group also logs non-personally-identifiable information including IP address, aggregate user data, and browser type from users and visitors to the site. This data is used to track usage of the websites and improve services. This aggregated data may be shared with third parties to provide more relevant and targeted advertisements or services to users.

A valid email address is required to register with the site. At no time will your email address be shared with a third party without your consent.

Cookies

The Pioneer Group will set a “cookie” that identifies you when you log in to one of its affiliated websites. This is necessary to maintain your preferences and to prevent you from having to log in to every page.

Contact Policy

The Pioneer Group may periodically contact you with announcements and updates via the email address provided during registration. At any time, you may opt out of receiving future emails by using the link provided in the footer of all email messages. However, The Pioneer Group reserves the right to contact you for necessary service-related purposes.

Disclaimer of Warranties

You agree that use of any of The Pioneer Group’s websites and any material or information available through these sites is entirely at your own risk. These sites are provided by The Pioneer Group on an “as is” and “as available” basis.

The Pioneer Group makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the operation of this site or the accuracy, completeness, currentness, non-infringement, merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose of the information available through its websites. Furthermore, The Pioneer Group does not guarantee that the sites will be error-free, continuously available, or free of viruses or other harmful components.

Under no circumstances will The Pioneer Group or its affiliates, agents, employees, representatives or licensors be liable to you or anyone else for any damages arising out of your use of these websites or any product or service linked to/from or advertised/promoted on its websites.

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless The Pioneer Group, its affiliates, agents, employees, representatives and licensors against any liability of any nature arising out of any content posted on pioneergroup.com or an affiliated site by you or by others using your account.